Founding Recruiter

What is Spade?

Financial institutions process billions of transactions every day across cards, ACH, wires, and third party aggregators. But most of that data is difficult to use. Descriptions are inconsistent, merchant names don’t match, and categories vary by payment type.

Spade is a data and AI platform that turns messy transaction strings into structured, verified records — and gives teams the tools to act on it across authorization, attribution, analytics, and AI initiatives. Spade leads the market in terms of merchant coverage, matching accuracy, geolocation data, and speed of transaction enrichment. Customers such as, FIS, Bilt, Mercury, Stripe, alongside many other leaders in fintech and financial services, trust Spade's data to enable personalized rewards programs, accurate applied spending rules, precise analytics requests, and innovative AI-powered features.

Spade is a fast growing, Series B company backed by industry experts and top tier investors (including Oak HC/FT, a16z, Flourish Ventures, Y-Combinator, and Gradient Ventures). We’re a lean and execution-oriented hybrid team, passionate about building exceptional products for our growing customer base. We care deeply about diversity of background, experience, and opinion. We value empathy, curiosity, and passion, and strive to create an environment where individuals have autonomy and the ability to take ownership over their work.

What will you be doing?

At Spade, hiring is a core strategic function as we scale the team and product. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you'll own recruiting end-to-end and build the foundation for our talent function as we scale our team from 20 to 40+ in 2026. 

You’ll partner closely with founders and leadership to hire across technical (engineering, data science, product) and G&A (commercial, support, operations, finance) roles. You will: 

• Own recruiting end-to-end, from role intake and sourcing strategy through offer close and onboarding — driving hiring for both technical and non-technical roles, flexing as business priorities evolve
• Partner closely with founders and hiring managers to define hiring plans, headcount priorities, and timelines
• Drive initiatives that improve Spade’s recruiting processes, tooling, and best practices
• Develop scalable sourcing strategies to attract top-tier talent in a competitive market
• Ensure a high-quality, inclusive, and thoughtful candidate experience that reflects Spade’s values
• Manage ATS (currently Greenhouse), including job setup, workflows, interview plans, reporting, and candidate experience
• Track and report on hiring metrics, funnel health, and hiring velocity to inform decision-making
• Lay the foundation for a future recruiting team, with the opportunity to hire and manage recruiters as the company grows

What experience, skills, and qualifications are necessary? 

• Must have:
  • NYC based
  • 6+ years of recruiting experience, including time in-house at a high-growth startup
  • Experience building or significantly evolving a recruiting function (processes, tools, playbooks)
  • Proven ability to recruit across both technical (engineering, data, product) and business (commercial, G&A) roles
  • Comfort with and excitement about owning full-cycle recruiting independently, from sourcing to closing candidates
  • Experience partnering directly with founders and senior leadership, acting as a thought partner and expert in shaping and running recruiting processes
  • Hands on experience with modern recruiting tools, including AI tools and ATS software (we use Greenhouse and Juicebox)
• Nice to have:
  • Experience as an early or founding recruiter at a startup
  • Background hiring in fintech, data, or infrastructure companies
  • Experience scaling teams rapidly (e.g., doubling headcount within a year)
  • Prior experience hiring and managing recruiting teams
  • Familiarity with employer branding and early-stage talent marketing

Why join Spade? 

• Be a cultural founder. As an early employee, you’ll play a meaningful role in defining and building our culture. 
• Get in on the ground floor. We’re a small but well-funded team – joining now comes with limited risk and unlimited upside. 
• Build the next generation of financial infrastructure. Our products will power the next wave of innovation in fintech, helping our customers deliver better, more transparent products and services to the consumer.

Benefits include:

• Competitive compensation package
• Full medical, dental, and vision benefits for US-based employees
• 401K for retirement planning
• Hybrid team, with pet-friendly headquarters in NYC
• $750 work-from-home setup stipend and $125 monthly lunch stipend

Diversity & Inclusion at Spade:

Spade is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culture that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We believe that having people with different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives not only helps us build the best products for our customers, but also helps us be the best version of ourselves.

Salary Range:

• As an employee, you will receive:
  • Full W-2 employment status with Spade
  • Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • 401k plan participation
  • Access to all standard employee equipment and systems
  • Eligible for equity grants, parental leave, and unlimited PTO.
• We aim to pay fairly and competitively, and consider a number of factors in developing compensation offers. These factors include years and breadth of experience, interview performance, market dynamics, and internal equity. 
• The anticipated cash salary range for this role is $170,000-$195,000 annually.